My Little Spot of Sanity

The Skelegro potion is an awful tasting potion that caused lost/vanished bones to regrow in a slow and painful process. So goes the story in the Harry Potter world.

It's been a while since I've created a Harry Potter project, but when I found these awesome skeleton bottles in the Halloween décor at Michaels I knew exactly what to do. They're great bottles made from a polyresin and measures approximately 9 inches in height. And while it's not the exact design of the original Skelegro bottle it's probably as close as I'll get. At least for a bottle that I can buy and alter myself.

Once home with my new potion bottle I turned to our friend Google search (actually I use Bing) and began searching for the Skelegro label. There were quite a few out there and I had to look at pictures I took of the Potions for All Afflictions shop in the Wizarding World at Harry Potter to make sure I chose the right one. You see this is where I could be even more authentic in my recreation of the potion bottle.

After finding the accurate label I opened the picture in my Silhouette software, traced and created the cut file I needed. Now the trick was to cut those silly words out in the size I needed and not lose any of them in the weeding process. After all the space I had to work with for my label was 2 inches wide by 2 1/2 inches tall.

Using my Oracle 651 vinyl, it took two different cuts and a couple play arounds with sizing of each line, but I got it. And now I have a great, fun new potion bottle to add to my collection.

Have you seen the recently released At Midnight file by Marjorie Ann Designs? If you love all things princess this is a must have addition to your paper piecing stash.

While this particular file has your favorite Cinderella princess, prince charming and fairy godmother, it also includes Cinderella's carriage and glass slipper. Oh and let's not forget the castle or pumpkin. With so many great options in this file it was hard to decide which image to play with first. But as you can see I finally settled on the glass slipper.

Since glass slippers are just that. Glass. I decided to use a scrap of vellum I had for the slipper image. I love the way that it turned out as it gives that sheer image you would expect of a glass slipper.

The sentiment I used for this card is from the Jaded Blossom stamp set titled Enchanted.

To finish off my card I decided to add a couple of stream colored skittles from DoubleClick Connections. There's just something about those skittles that I love and you can bet that I'll use them every chance I get.

I have another quick and easy ornament to share with you today. I decided that this year I would try using the alcohol ink rather than glitter method for my ornaments. If you've never used alcohol ink for your ornaments check out the video how to here. It's so simple that you'll be asking yourself why you didn't try it sooner......at least I did when I saw how easy it was.

When Silhouette was running their Christmas in July store this Carolers Silhouette file by Hero Arts was one of the many files that I purchased. It's a fun file, easy to cut and absolutely perfect for this alcohol inked ornament.

After a couple months of my heat press being "packed up" I was finally able to break it out and play again. Because it had been so long I was actually nervous about using it. I had to remind myself about how to cut my heat transfer vinyl and what settings to set my press for. Something that I used to be able to do without even thinking.

Fortunately I didn't have to think too hard and getting back into the swing of using my heat press was much easier than I anticipated. Thank goodness too because I've been holding on to this awesome Biker Pack file from Apex Cuttables just waiting to create a little boy's tee with it.

This amazing file has five different designs and each one of them are just as cute as ever. I love the way that this particular design pops on this baseball tee. Those red sleeves and this great little biker go so well together don't you think?

I love this one so much that I need to go buy a few more tees so I can cut the other designs and create a complete line of little boy biker tees.

So I thought I'd try something new - again. Over the past few months I've noticed a growing trend in painting rocks. First it was just in my FB group Universal Studios Annual Passholders. But then one of my friends started sharing pictures almost daily.

And then my son and I each found a rock. Well that meant I had to join some group on FB so that I could post pictures letting the painter know that we found them.

Being in that group meant that I had to start checking out pictures on Pintrest. That lead to my husband and I both being on the lookout for rocks that I could paint.

Are you seeing how this all "snowballed"? 😀

Seriously though. I just decided one day to start playing around and paint a couple of rocks to see how I'd like it. Of course they looked like a child painted them. After all I am not a painter. But I still hid them and started painting my next set. To this day I don't know if those first ones were ever found. All I can do is imagine someone without a computer or FB did find them and are enjoying them somewhere.

Since my first attempt at painting rocks I've bought new brushes and paints. I hear some people use markers and sharpies but if I'm going to paint a rock I'd rather just 'paint' it. I've improved a little but really it's about having fun. It's been a great new outlet just sitting there thinking about nothing but painting that silly rock that someone will hopefully enjoy.

Today I have a layout to share with you. I still have so many pictures from out trip to Universal Studios that need to be scrapbooked. And yes, that's after I've already filled up one book. I guess that's what happens when you visit your favorite place every year.

This layout features pictures that my husband and I took when we visited the Jurassic Park section of Universal Studios. Tucked in between Camp Jurassic and the Discovery Center is an area where you can meet a 9 foot tall raptor. It's a fun non-ride experience and we do it every time we go.

So for my layout I thought it would be fun to use pieces from the Dinosaur Park file by Marjorie Ann Designs. Mix in some fun dinosaur background paper from the DCWV Kidosaurus Stack and you have a winning layout.

Chickens and kitchens are a pairing that I've seen around off and on for a long time. So when I ran across this Hei Hei inspired embroidery sketch from Thanks for the Adventure I had to add it to my stash.

Lately I've been stitching out towels for Christmas. And those towels have been stitched on a waffle weave style towel. Well this time I decided to do it all completely different. This time I stitched out my rooster on a flour sack towel.

Now I'm not sure how I feel about these flour sack towels, but there are people out there who just love them. Or so I'm told. 😀 So I figured why not.

All in all I do love the way that he stitched out. The colors of thread I used are not 100% accurate but I used the closest colors I had. But then isn't that what "inspired" is all about? Taking the real thing and creating something based on it? Either way I'm loving how the colors I used pop against each other on that white background. And maybe next time I'll come up with some clever saying I can add to the design....